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EpicEnergy

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Blog Entries posted by EpicEnergy

  1. EpicEnergy
    Ok, now is the time to find out how many answers a single poll can have!
    Disclaimer: staff, if you are reading this and the forums broke, I apologize. I do not intend for anything bad to happen, but I want to find the max poll answer limit and see how it looks like. On the positive side, this tests the forums for any bugs. On the negative, things might break. If this blog entry breaks something and needs to be deleted, I will delete it. And I'm making this public so other users can join in on the fun and see if there's a limit to how many multiple-choice votes you can do!
    EDIT #1: check periodically for updates! I will update it and add more choices soon!
    EDIT #2: added choices 101-201 current amount of choices: 201
    EDIT #3: Bug reports: ok staff, get your notebook out cause I found a bug! I might find more but for now there's just one that I noticed! using <> within a choice for a question on a poll will automatically delete that choice when you submit it! Example:
    Question: How was your day?
    Choice 1: nice
    Choice 2: <nicer>
    Choice 3: nicest!
    In the above example, choice 2 is deleted because of the brackets <> being used in it! So you cannot use brackets in that exact manner or it will automatically delete the choice upon submitting the post, and if there's only two choices with one choice containing brackets in that exact manner, your post will not submit because each question needs at least 2 choices. I guess it might be happening because HTML uses brackets in that way? Not sure lol
  2. EpicEnergy

    Should I start an AMA?

    By EpicEnergy,


    I have no idea what category to put this blog entry in so this is a random blog entry category for random stuff lol
    Yeah I've actually never done an AMA before anywhere. I'm very weird in a chaotically chaotic way so I really don't know if anyone would be interested in an AMA by me. Also if I do start one, I honestly don't know how my answers would be. Like sometimes I joke around and other times I'm serious, it depends on my mood, what question is being asked, and a few other things. So yeah please vote and don't worry about the options I put on the poll (I got carried away XD), like I'll only base my decision off the "yes" and "no" answers. And also I don't know if I'll start an AMA even if there is more "yes" than "no" answers because it might make me nervous lol.
    EDIT: I noticed that there are actually only 9 options but for some reason when I created this, it skipped option 3 because I deleted it, so it's labeled options 1-10 with the 3rd option? Yep that's what happened I guess.
  3. EpicEnergy
    As an Xbox and Steam gamer, I’ve decided to list a few games that have been released on both Xbox and Steam to compare their ratings on the two platforms. So, the following is the list of the games I am comparing*, with the first percentage being total positive reviews on Xbox, and the second percentage being total positive reviews on Steam:
    Black Desert (54% to 76%) Anno 1800 (72% to 81%) Fallout 4 (94% to 83%) Skyrim Special Edition (90% to 94%) Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (68% to 65%) Resident Evil 4 Remake (96% to 97%) Red Dead Redemption 2 (82% and 90%) Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (66% to 63%) Dead Space Remake (96% to 93%) Halo The Master Chief Collection (86% to 92%). Something to note is that out of the mentioned games, 6 out of 10 games are rated higher on Steam than on Xbox. This data suggests that there are slightly more games that receive a lower rating on Xbox, but I think that it would be more realistic to say that the platform that has higher game ratings varies depending on what games you select, and that there is a marginal difference. Another implication of the data is that there is normally a marginal difference between a game’s rating on Xbox and Steam. Also, you may have noticed though that a few games on the list have a significant difference in their ratings on Xbox and Steam. I might create another blog entry to examine why that has occurred, but it depends on how real life goes.
     
    * The game ratings I give are percentages, but the rating system on Xbox is a decimal system that uses stars as ratings (with a maximum star rating of five), whereas Steam is a percentage system that uses positive and negative review scores as ratings (with a maximum positive rating of 100%); therefore, I converted the decimal system into a percentage system for an easier comparison between game ratings on the two platforms. If you wish to convert the first number back into decimals to determine the validity of my conversions, here is a very easy way to do so: 1 = 20%, 0.5 = 10%, and 0.1 = 2%.
  4. EpicEnergy
    MLP "Tale Your Tale" is good but lacks substance. The movie ("A New Generation, aka. ANG) also was lacking in substance, which presents a problem for this new series. Normally shorts don't need much substance, but they are also normally based on a movie, series, or show that has a good amount of substance, so to make a substance-lacking short based on a substance-lacking movie causes issues. These issues are apparent throughout the four currently released shorts in "Tell You Tale" (TYT), and will likely manifest themselves throughout this short series. The issues I'm referring to are lack of worldbuilding, lack of character development, and other areas that have little to no substance.
    Examples:
    1) Sunny's lighthouse is fully restored in a similar way to The Golden Oak Library. How and when did this restoration occur? We don't know, and this problem is a result of lack of worldbuilding.
    2) Izzy is (or was?) a bad roommate. Now what I'm about to say is debatable, but I'm going to say it anyways. I think that Izzy's behavior in ANG does not indicate that she would become a bad roommate. I mean, she was not as hyperactive and careless in ANG as she was in TYT, so where did this behavior come from? We don't know, so this problem is a lack of character development.
    3) Hitch has a crab. Nowhere was this crab seen in ANG, so where did it come from and how did Hitch get it as a pet? We don't know, and this constitutes as lack of worldbuilding and character development due to the fact that Hitch's relationship with the crab wasn't developed at all before TYT was released.
    4) Izzy was able to simultaneously sleep and cast a spell that levitated and moved Pipp's blanket. How was she able to do that? We don't know, so again this is an example of lack of worldbuilding.
    Those are a few examples that I listed, but there are probably more that I am not aware of as of now, since I only watched each episode once so far. My point in listing those examples, regardless of whether or not they are legitimate, is to solidify my point that lack of substance in shorts that are based on a substance-lacking movie leads to lack of worldbuilding and lack of character development and that leads to issues such as those provided above.
  5. EpicEnergy
    So there's this YouTuber who makes OSTs into rock music covers!
    Here's a link to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAHYPBvyaQIpjyTSdQhOMQ
    And here's some personal recommendations of what to listen to from that YouTuber:
    Halo OST:
    Shadow of the Colossus OST:
    Skyrim OST:
    I hope whoever reads this enjoys the music!
  6. EpicEnergy

    Update (April 2021)

    By EpicEnergy,


    Situations In My Life
    So this is an update on how things are going for me in life right now.
    I'm still working a job that I've had since November 2020, and even though peak season is over (the time around Black Friday and Christmas), they are still making me work a ton of overtime due to sales like a Spring sale. I think it was last week when I worked 6 ten-hour days straight, and they were going to make it 9 days straight but decided to give us a day off. I like the job, but they make us work really hard and don't give us much time off. I know that I have depression because my doctor said so, but I think that maybe being overworked and the environment I'm working in are also negatively affecting my mental health. I work in a warehouse for 10 hours each day except on days off, so I rarely see the sun, and when I come home I'm too tired to go outside. At least my coworkers and bosses are mostly friendly, but I grow weary of doing the same thing over and over again for 10 hours a day with not much time off. That also might be negatively affecting my mental health, having to do the same thing every day with little time off. I would like to get a job that I like more, but I have no motivation and I need to be staying in this job right now because it would be hard to find another decent job. Actually, my parents are relying on me having a job because they would not be able to afford all that they are having to pay. Because we will be moving in a few months or so, they will be paying house payments, utility bills, insurance bills, money for groceries, and more for themselves, my siblings, and me since I live with them. So it is very important that I keep this job even though I'm not mentally healthy at all. So anyways, that's how my job is going right now. It's decent, but it has downsides to it.
    As for my mental health, I'm still having problems. I've been feeling more anxious and stressed recently. I still have some problems with autism. But those aren't as bad as the depression I'm having. I have absolutely no motivation to do anything, I can't even find motivation to play video games which is something that I like to do. How am I supposed to do something I don't want to do when I can't even do something that I want to do? I don't know. I also have problems with my feelings, I rarely feel anything positive. I mostly feel loneliness, pain, stress, and demotivation. The loneliness is getting really bad, it triggers severe bouts of depression, but the job I work often has me working alone and I don't feel like socializing because it makes me feel more lonely and stressed. I'm still taking anti-depressants, but one of them is causing me to shake really bad and I need to talk to my doctor about it. Also, I'm not seeing a counselor, therapist, psychologist, or any other doctor aside from my family doctor that I see once every other month or so, because I'm in the process of getting my insurance changed. That's the problem I'm experiencing with my mental health right now, I kinda need some help because my mental health isn't getting any better. It actually feels like it's getting worse.
    That's what's going on in my life right now.
  7. EpicEnergy

    Autism

    By EpicEnergy,


    Situations In My Life
    I haven't really said anything about this because I wasn't sure and I'm still not sure, but my family doctor and my former psychologist that I went to have both said that I have high functioning autism spectrum disorder (Here's what it is if you don't know). So yeah, I have a form of autism. I also have depression on top of that. I also had (not sure if I still have it though) OCD. The problem is I'm not getting treatment for anything mental health related, aside from taking three anti-depressant medications prescribed to me by my family doctor. I stopped going to counselors and psychologists. I would like to start it again but I'm in a hard place in life right now where I'm moving to a different state and getting a different health insurance, so I can't look for those doctors because I might not be able to pay for it. I really need some help for this autism and depression , but I'm not able to get it right now. Anyways, that's what is going on right now in my life.
  8. EpicEnergy

    Between A Rock And A Hard Place

    By EpicEnergy,


    Situations In My Life
    I just recently received some stressful news. My dad is resigning from his job, my mom and dad are moving to a new place far away from where they live right now, and my dad is getting another job over there. Why does this stress me out? Because I'm currently living with my mom and dad, so this means I'm going to have to move as well. I have three choices: move with my parents and leave my job because it would be way too far away to travel to, move in with my grandparents and stay in my job because it is close to them, or live on my own close to where my job is and stay in my job. I have a month or two, maybe three, to make a choice. I have no idea what to choose though. And to add to the difficulty of making this decision, I've been having bad depression for a few years now and it's getting worse despite being on the most anti-depressants I've ever been on in my life (I'm currently taking three different anti-depressants). To make things even more difficult, I am getting a different counselor/therapist because the one I've been going to isn't helpful anymore, so that is another big change that is happening right now. As if that isn't stressful enough, the place where I work doesn't have enough work to last everyone all day so they are sending people home early every day, which means they get a lower paycheck including myself. If I go to live on my own, I might not have enough money to support myself. I don't know what to do. I'll try to make a choice soon, but I made this just to let everyone know what I'm going through right now.
  9. EpicEnergy
    I would like to give my current thoughts on G5 and My Little Pony.
    So, being completely honest, I don't care about G5 right now. I actually haven't cared about it in months. I think I know what happened, I lost all interest in My Little Pony. I still love the fandom and fan-made creations, but I have no interest in watching G5, MLP FiM, Pony Life, or the 2nd MLP Movie. I love playing Ponytown with friends, I love looking at all the artwork of cute ponies, I love being on these forums chatting with others, and I love my MLP plushies, but I no longer love watching Friendship is Magic, the MLP Movie, Pony Life, and I am not looking forward to any shows/movies about My Little Pony because I simply do not care about them right now. Maybe in the future my love for My Little Pony movies/shows will return, but for now my love for them is gone. I want to clarify that G5 isn't the reason this has happened though. I also  want to clarify that I will not be leaving these forums or the fandom just because I lost interest in My Little Pony movies/shows. That is all I wanted to say, I hope everyone here understands.
  10. EpicEnergy

    I'm Going Back To Work

    By EpicEnergy,

    I applied for another job. This is actually the first application I sent in since around January 2020. The reason I haven't sent in any applications since then is because I worked a job from February 2020 - June 2020. I haven't put in any job applications from June 2020 until now even though I've been unemployed since then because I've been feeling extremely depressed and discouraged. It's unfortunate, because I've had depression since around January 2018. I know the job I applied for is going to be tough, because anything is tough because of this depression that I've had for so long. If I don’t get the job, I’ll apply for more, but I’m hoping I’ll get the job. I applied for full time because I’m only taking one college class right now.
    The problem is getting a job isn't going to help me get out of this depression. It isn’t going to change the fact that I don’t have enough motivation to complete college. It isn’t going to make me feel better. It isn’t going to help me find my purpose in life. Some may think getting a job is a step forward and will help me, but I think it doesn’t. The last job I worked made me feel really depressed and every job I’ve had I had end up leaving in one way or another. The only reason I’m getting a job is because my parents are running very low on money and I’m living with them.
    Right now I hate life, but with a job I’m going to hate life even more. Getting a job is going to cause me so much stress and anxiety. It is going to cause me so much pain. And it’s not even worth it.
  11. EpicEnergy

    Vent

    By EpicEnergy,

    I just need to vent about a few things right now.
    - I feel lonely. It’s so frustrating, I feel lonely but I don’t want to talk or be around to people. I’m not sure why it is that way, but it just is. I have online friends, but I still feel lonely. I had many real-life friends at college a few years ago, but I still felt lonely then. Also, I would love to have a girlfriend, but I don’t think any girls would be interested in me. I look unappealing and horrible, I rarely show my emotions and many of my emotions are dead, and I don’t talk much, so who would be interested in having a boyfriend, or even a just a friend, who is like that?
    - I hate jobs. They suck. How does anyone manage to work a job? I’ve worked a few jobs and I felt so miserable working them. Nowadays most jobs require people to do something that I am really terrible at doing, interacting with and talking to people. I can’t do that! Well, I can, but I often misunderstand and can’t hear people, and when I talk to people I find it hard to say some words and I frequently take short pauses because I can’t think about what to say fast enough. Also, talking to people makes me really anxious and stressed. Anyways, I can’t lift anything heavy because I’m not in shape. Problems with lifting heavy objects and talking to people severely limits the number of jobs I can apply to. And what also severely limits the jobs I can apply to is the experience requirement. Right now I’m unemployed, and I’m so discouraged about jobs that I’ve stopped applying to them entirely. I’d rather rot in my room than work a job. It’s not that I don’t want to work (I don’t want to do anything), it’s that I feel so demotivated and depressed that I can’t even get out of bed to eat lunch.
    - I feel demotivated. This is everyday that I have to put up with demotivation, and I can’t take it anymore. I don’t have any willpower left to do anything, and I stay in bed almost half the day it’s that bad. I don’t even have any motivation to play video games.
  12. EpicEnergy

    2020

    By EpicEnergy,

    2020, the year that's absolutely terrible but couldn't get any worse, right? 

    source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html
    Since 06/15/20, coronavirus cases per day have been vastly increasing in the USA. Yep, looks like a second wave of the coronavirus is heading my way. So much for "2020 couldn't get any worse". 
    This year has been terrible. The coronavirus hit hard, so did the riots after George Floyd's death. As if that wasn't bad enough, I've had some bad things happen in my personal life. I was sent to the hospital for personal reasons and stayed there for almost a week, which means I have a huge bill heading my way that I might not be able to afford to pay off, so I might have to get a loan from the bank. The job I've been working for almost half of this year I've just recently quit because I wasn't able to keep up with its demands anymore, so that leaves me unemployed. And I'm still on anti-depressants because I still have depression. I really hate life.
  13. EpicEnergy
    So this is the second time I quit a job. I actually worked only three jobs in my life so far, the first one I quit because it had harsh work conditions and the labor was too hard for me (they had me lifting 100 lbs. frequently), the second one I was laid off, and the third one I just recently quit because I couldn't keep up with the demands of the job (it demanded that I go extremely fast because it was assembly line work). Anyways, I stayed at this job for several months, but recently I noticed that they kept on telling me to go faster and that I couldn't work fast enough. So, I put in my two weeks notice to resign. I don't regret it either, the job was terrible as it had harsh work conditions like my first job, the leads would tell you to work harder and faster and if you didn't they would threaten to write you up, and the work was very boring, tedious, and repetitious. The only good things about it was that it was good pay and gave me experience on assembly lines. I was planning to switch to a certain job once I quit that one, but I haven't heard from them and it's been around two weeks or so since I last talked to someone from the job I was planning on getting. Since that didn't work out, at least not yet, now I'm sending in applications to other jobs. I'm running into numerous problems now though, it's getting close to the fall semester and I want to go back to college, but I have no idea what I want to aim for anymore, my motivation is dead, and I still have depression. If I get another job now, I might end up quitting it to go back to college, but I'm afraid I'll end up quitting college again as well because of my lack of motivation and direction. I used to want to be a computer programmer, but now I don't want to be anything. I wonder if it is just pointless to move on at all, I feel like nothing matters anyways. I'm confused, I have no idea what I believe anymore. I don't know who to trust. I used to be a Christian, but now I hate religion. I just want my life to end.
  14. EpicEnergy
    Right now I feel extremely lonely, worthless, and demotivated. It happens a lot whenever I'm not busy. And this is really a problem I need a solution to, the fact that no matter how busy I get and no matter how much time passes, I always feel depressed whenever I stop to take a breath. It's like staying busy is only masking my problems, not helping them. I'm also having other problems right now, I want to go back to college and find a career but I don't know which one to aim for. I thought it would be something about computers, but being honest I've lost my love for them. I no longer want to be a computer programmer because I can't find any motivation, love, enjoyment, and enthusiasm for it. I don't know if my depression is causing me to feel that way or not, but I do know that is how I've been feeling about computer programming. Because of this, I can't find any career to aim for and I can't find a reason to go back to college either. Some people have given me the advice that college isn't for me and I should just stick with the job I have, but the problem is that all the jobs I've worked and the job I'm working are jobs that I don't like and have no passion for. This leads me to the conclusion that there is nothing for me in life and it makes me feel talentless and worthless. I know it's not healthy to think that way, but I can't help it because it seems very true with the way things are going for me. And I don't know what to do with loneliness. No matter how many people I make friends with, it never goes away. I try to think positive, but thinking positive has the same results as staying busy - it only masks my problems instead of helping them. As for medication, they don't help. I've been on them for a long time, yet they are also only masking the problem instead of helping it. It's like everything in this hell of a world I live in does nothing to help, it's like I'm permanently stuck this way. Every day seems unproductive, and whenever I do something productive I feel miserable. I just wish I was nonexistent, that would not only help my problems, it would get rid of them entirely.
  15. EpicEnergy
    I’ve been inactive for a long time until recently, only posting around five or so content each week, sometimes less than that. I kinda just posted one or two things occasionally on these forums during that time. This started sometime in the beginning of 2019 and has lasted up until a few days ago. The reason why that’s happened is because I’ve been experiencing a ton of difficulty with depression and anxiety. I had no motivation to post any content on the forums and I constantly felt depressed and anxious. That’s also why I’ve been having a tough time in life, even though I’ve been getting counseling and therapy for the past few months. Now that I’ve been taking a new medication though, I think it’s finally working and I have more motivation and energy to get out of this rut that I’ve been stuck in for a year or two now. I still have a long road to recovery, but at least things are looking better for me.
    Also, I wanted to say something else. Even though I’ve become very active on these forums again, I don’t intend to stay active for a very long time. I’m planning to get very busy with things in life soon, and that means less time for me to be active on these forums. I’ll still continue posting on these forums for the time being though, until I start getting very busy again.
  16. EpicEnergy

    My Predicament

    By EpicEnergy,

    In this blog entry, I’ll just be talking about what’s happening in my life right now.
    So, I’m trying to get a job. That’s what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks now though, I need to step it up more and try harder. Anyways, I have no clue what job I will get or how long I will be working, I’m trying various things right now, but I will probably be working 8 or more hours a day once I do get one.
    I’m also pursuing a career right now in computer science and programming, so I’ll see how that works out for me. I’m taking some small, free online courses and learning more about the field. It’s interesting for me, but I still don’t know if I want to do that as a career – there is no reason for me not to, I’m interested in computers and programming languages and I have the capability of understanding most of those things, but I still have doubts. I mean, creating algorithms, variables, functions, and doing mathematics everyday seems too high of a task for me to do. I haven’t failed at any of it, yet, and I’ve understood what I’ve been learning, but I still don’t know.
    Despite what I’ve said above, I feel like I haven’t been making much progress lately, and that it’s all my fault. Everything’s starting to get under my skin, I’m more conflicted than I’ve ever been in my life. I mentioned it before, that I sometimes feel positive and sometimes feel negative, a constant battle within. It’s also the stress, I’m stressing out because I must get a job, get a decent car, get money, pursue a career, get out of my comfort zone, and do something with my life – all while fighting a brutal battle with my strong desire to give in to laziness and comfort; also, I’m trying to do those things but nothing big is happening because I’m not trying hard enough, so I must push myself even further which makes the pressure significantly worse. I was hoping that knowing my career, possibly something in computer science, would help, and it does a little, but that also makes things worse. I’m not going to let anything get me down and stop trying, but it is starting to really affect me.
  17. EpicEnergy
    Season 8 Episodes 1 and 2 "School Daze" Review by EpicEnergy
    Season 8 Episode 1 “School Daze Part 1” Review
    Episode 1 Opening: Normally, I don’t have an episode’s opening as an individual category in my reviews, but this is an exception because this opening is the first scene we see of season 8, containing much information right off the start. Since this is the first episode of season 8, this episode indeed has a connection with the previous MLP Movie, but not with season 7. First and foremost, I don’t expect S8 ep1 to take place right after the events in the MLP Movie, which is the Storm King’s defeat and the celebration of a certain festival afterwards, since the occurrences taking place in season 8 indicate at least a few weeks have passed since the events in the MLP Movie. Anyways, we are reminded of the incidents that took place during the MLP Movie and the new areas explored. The recollection in this episode of the MLP Movie incidents serves as a crucial component in establishing a firm foundation for future season 8 episodes because it reminds us that the MLP Movie and what happened in it is canonical; moreover, since most of the places there that were visited will be revisited in season 8, knowing about where they are located, who lives there, and what happened there is highly important. Additionally, the dialogue each character gives in this opening of episode 1 is very informative of what happened after the MLP Movie ended, such as where Tempest Shadow went. Very well handled, writers, I couldn’t ask for a better reminder and account of the MLP Movie, what a way to start an episode with. Moving onward. A good portion of season 8 is about the School of Friendship which reaches out to all creatures. Another portion is about adventuring to those places beyond Equestria on friendship quests. Both mainly originate from Twilight’s decision to start a school. It is this decision that lays the path for many Season 8 episodes, and this decision originates from the MLP Movie itself. This opening tells us about the lake from where a good amount of season 8 flows from. We know why there is a school, why Twilight founded the school, why creatures who are not Equestrians attend this school, why we see more of other lands outside of Equestria, and how these lands were found in the first place. The only issue I have with the opening is the fact that the map expanded without explanation. This map remains a contrived and arbitrary plot-device, which is a large problem to have in a narrative, and having it expand for no given or indicated reason makes this even worse. Consequently, I must subtract a few points for this poorly designed and improperly used plot-device that will most certainly affect future episodes until fixed or removed.
    Characters: The leaders of the nations outside of Equestria all have excellent personalities and play a great role in this episode, so thankfully there is nothing to criticize here. The mane six are also used and depicted fantastically, the only problem is Twilight Sparkle in a particular scene. The mane six approach Twilight to tell her that going by the book simply isn’t working. It is here that Twilight acts severely out of character, which is somewhat irritating because Twilight has set the book as the ultimate authority instead of her own as the Princess of Friendship. I must take off some points from the rating for this incident being illogical, as Twilight completely ignores all her friends and ignores the disastrous effects of following the book that are clearly evident throughout the school.
    New characters: The EEA scene is where we see the main antagonist of episodes one and two, Chancellor Neighsay. Neighsay has a somewhat arrogant and very serious personality which seems to be present in the entire EEA organization. This arrogant personality is what fits with his speciesism, which means that he thinks that ponies are higher and more important than any other creature/species. Next characters. In this episode, we are introduced to the student six. Their personalities are quite likeable. The student six are comparable to the mane six, but not to the point where they have completely identical characteristics, personality, and/or appearance. They are well-balanced characters.
    Plot: Overall, the plot is great in this episode; however, there have a few problems in some scenes. The first scene I shall address is when Twilight and Celestia in Celestia’s school talk about how to run a school. This where Celestia reveals that she and no one else has no authority over the EEA in academia despite her standing as a princess or any other standing whatsoever, like a princess of friendship. I suppose the EEA is some sort of independent organization that somehow manages to be the ultimate authority when it comes to academia, but this area remains unclear. The writers could have made it clearer as to why and how such an organization rose to power. Such a restriction has not been seen in Equestria up until now either, as far as I remember that is, though I won’t take off any points since this doesn’t appear to be much of an issue anyways. I must move on. Next, we see the School of Friendship itself for the first time. I don’t like that it is just there. The writers could at least have somepony say when it was built instead of just having Twilight announce ‘I’ll make a school’ then proceed to have it partially accredited, and instantly afterwards we see a fully operational school building. Hence, I must deduct a few points from the overall rating of this episode. Now I will critique the “friends and family day” scene. It’s good the writers gave us that reason for every leader to be there, because this makes the next scene seem hardly contrived and arbitrary at all. I’m referring to the scene where every single leader hears Neighsay make racial comments. During the chaos beforehand, I noticed Gallus just dropped Sandbar for no apparent reason which knocked over the leaders like bowling balls. Sorry to be so critical of what is meant to be a humorous moment, but Gallus just dropping Sandbar for no reason makes no sense, and Gallus wasn’t even upset or showed any sign of doing that purposely, yet he threw Sandbar very tremendously anyways. Also, Derpy causing both Smolder and Silverstream to crash out of the sky into the food/desert stand even though Derpy didn’t appear to touch them at all makes no sense either. What’s more is that Ocellus destroyed a good and sturdy tower as a large, flying insect, which also makes no sense how she managed to do that. Therefore, I must take off some points. Now for the final scene. Neighsay shuts the school down at the very end of this episode, and then the “to be continued” image pops up, which leaves us with suspense. Nicely done on this scene.
    Moral: There is no evident moral in this episode yet, because it is only part 1 of 2.
    Episode Rating: 8.5/10
    Season 8 Episode 2 “School Daze Part 2” Review
    Characters: The characters are well-treated in this episode, so there is no problem here. We also see more characteristics and personalities of the new characters.
    Plot: The general plot of this episode is well designed as usual, but there are some aspects of it that fail to be genuine. To begin with, the opening of this episode, the usual part 2 MLP opening, consists of a summary of the previous events that took place during part 1. I appreciate this, because sometimes people can’t watch both episodes back to back on certain occasions, and this opening type assists by helping us to recall those events. Next scene, we have Twilight, who has entered a temporary yet severe state of depression. She acts severely out of character here and even entirely ignores her friends, but the real question I’m asking is whether this is reasonable. My interpretation, based on the previous occurrences in part 1, is that going into this depressive mood is in fact reasonable and not illogical since Twilight just had her dreams crushed and her friendships with other nations seemingly ruined, and that Twi tends to overreact; thus, no points will be deducted. The next scene I want to address is the potential world war scene. As a large part of the plot that exists to stir up suspense in the viewers to this episode, this subplot has a few issues that I must mention. The major problem is that all five nations instantly threaten each other that will result in a world war if not dealt with, and that every nation’s reason to start such a disastrous incident is that the leaders simply don’t know where each one’s student went. I find this highly unreasonable, since war, which should be used as a last resort, is used as the very first resort; moreover, we don’t even have any reason why the six students are highly important to the leaders to begin with, except for Sandbar (being a pony) and Silverstream (being the Queen’s niece). For these two reasons, I must deduct some points from the episode rating. Oh, by the way, what also makes no sense is that only the mane six go searching for the students while no one else does anything despite the threat of a world war. Moving onward to the next scene I will address, Silverstream says that she has never seen stairs before, and that this is her first time seeing them. As funny as it is, this is inconsistent because Silverstream was at a school with plenty of stairs to be seen. A simplistic, minor error on the writers’ part, but I still must count off a few points. Next scene. We are now introduced to a strange, new critter species. I would call them the correct name, but since I don’t know how to spell it correctly, I will refer to them as the colorful porcupines (I know, very creative). These creatures are obviously used for plot-convenience, because they suddenly appear right on time to threaten the student six so that the mane six can rescue them, and these critters disappear right after that. Since this plot-convenience is at least slightly subtle, and an attempt was made to make it completely subtle, I will deduct a very small amount of points. The remainder of the episode is great, and I have nothing to criticize in it, so I shall end this section and proceed to the moral.
    Moral: One may argue that there is no moral in “School Daze”, since it is a two-part episode, and most of those episode categories focus more on the story aspect rather than the moral aspect. I would disagree with that. The major moral is that all creatures are equal. This is symbolic of the modern-day issue of racism. Neighsay enforces the morally wrong idea that ponies are superior than any other race. Twilight demotes this by promoting the morally right idea that all creatures should be treated equally, and that friendship should be available to everyone. It isn’t pleasant when writers force modern-day issues into movies because we have seen enough of it in real-life and because the writers usually force it in there and ruin the narrative, but this modern-day issue is symbolized, and it don’t feel forced at all. This symbol fits perfectly into the theme and context, and it teaches us a very valuable lesson.
    Episode Rating: 9/10
    Additional Areas (if applicable)
    I’ll be speaking of both episodes 1 and 2 as one episode in this category.
    Humor: The humor is excellent and solid! I am glad the episodes aren’t overflowing with it, nor are they kept at a too serious level either. It’s the perfect balance for this episode, and it is thoroughly enjoyable.
    Aesthetics: It’s pleasing to see that MLP S8 keeps the traditional 2D animations despite the movie’s animations. G4 is better off continuing what they started than switching over to 3D animations suddenly, though it wouldn’t bother me if G5 had them.
    Overall Episode Rating (parts 1 and 2): 8.5/10
    Conclusion: There are minor problems in both episodes. The map is of course introduced once more, which a very contrived and arbitrary plot-device; however, it doesn't really play a part in "School Daze" so it hardly affects the rating. There is a plot-convenience in part 1 at the end where the students suddenly become extremely clumsy to further the plot, but the context makes this problem rather miniature and insignificant so this also hardly affects the rating. The second part has an illogical subplot, which is the only major problem out of both parts. Aside from those minor problems, the amount of good content in "School Daze" outnumbers the amount of bad content by far. Therefore, this entire episode is rated 8.5/10, unless you round it off to the nearest whole number which would give it a 9/10,
    Rating Scale:
    0 = the worst of the worst, an absolute failure
    1 = an extremely horrible disaster
    2 = very dreadful
    3 = terrible
    4 = bad
    5 = mediocre
    6 = good
    7 = great
    8 = very fantastic
    9 = extremely amazing
    10 = an absolute perfection
  18. EpicEnergy
    Preliminary Topic
    Before I begin my review, I must bring up an essential topic. If you already know why Celestia is a problematic character and what those problems are, then there is no need to read this section. Feel free to skip down to the review at any time.
    Season 8 Episode 7 “Horse Play” Review by EpicEnergy
    To begin with, I have much to say about the characters, starting with Celestia. There are three things about her that I want to address. Firstly, the writers fixed the area where Celestia’s ability to raise the sun was diminished due to the Hearth’s Warming story that said unicorns could “bring forth day and night”. Now we understand that bringing forth day and night was not as simplistic as the Hearth’s Warming story depicted it to be, because it required multiple unicorns and Starswirl himself to raise the sun, which permanently depletes the other unicorns of their magic in the process. The strength required to raise the sun is now evident, and it makes Celestia more important and unique. I must commend the writers for providing this significant and needed fix. Secondly, this episode reveals and expounds on more of Celestia’s characteristics, making her even more enjoyable and relatable. Thirdly, this episode creates a negative characteristic in Celestia. Throughout this episode, Celestia interprets things too literally. It starts to get very annoying, but at least Celestia makes up for it in the end. Proceeding, I now will address Twilight’s behavior. Twilight acts out-of-character and bluntly lies to Celestia throughout the episode, which is illogical because she should have listened to Applejack in the first place and she should have known that telling the truth to Celestia would be morally correct and not contradictory to everything Twilight learned. Twilight’s actions are unreasonable, so I must deduct a few points off the episode rating.  Lastly, I will briefly refer to the Method Mares. Their involvement in this episode provides even more theatre-related content, adding to this episode’s theatrical theme. The last subject I want to refer to is the moral. It is very basic, and completely unnecessary. It’s also a repeated moral, we obviously heard it before in previous episodes. The focus of the episode was on Celestia and not the moral; consequently, the moral didn’t receive the same treatment, and it is not satisfactory. Everyone already knows not to lie and to tell the truth.
    Episode Rating: 5/10
    In conclusion, this episode focused on making Celestia a better character, and it succeeded despite not fixing every single one of her problems. However, the episode also made Twilight be unreasonable and gave us a basic moral that was already given in previous episodes. I would say that this episode had a balance of positive and negative features, giving it a “mediocre” rating.
    Rating Scale:
     
  19. EpicEnergy
    Season 8 Episode 3 “The Maud Couple” Review by EpicEnergy
    Characters: Let me initiate this review by starting with the primary new character in this episode – Mudbriar. His personality is mainly technicality; as a matter of fact, he is only technical and hardly nothing else. This becomes very annoying over time, since he is always acting and speaking with technicality. Consequently, I must subtract a good portion of points from the episode rating for this. Next, I shall briefly talk about Pinkie. She acts somewhat out of character, overexaggerating too often, which doesn’t provide a natural feel to this episode. Therefore, I shall remove a very small amount of points for this. Continuing, I shall discuss Starlight. She appears to replace the rest of the mane six in this episode by counseling Pinkie and attempting to resolve Pinkie’s friendship problem with Mudbriar. I disagree that she replaces the mane six in this area; rather, I would say that her involvement in this episode has no problems. The only pony who would be qualified to take Starlight’s position would be Twilight, but she is not friends with Maud, so Starlight is the best candidate for this type of situation. Lastly, I want to address Maud’s personality. Maud can now demonstrate with ease her emotions through her tone of voice and facial expressions while still maintaining her normal personality. This is contrary to Mudbriar, as his technicality prevents his emotions from appearing to be genuine.
    Overall, I must deduct some points from the episode rating because of Mudbriar’s technicality and Pinkie’s highly overexaggerated personality.
    Plot: The general plot is superb, and well executed. Surprisingly, I found absolutely no contrived and arbitrary plot-devices or plot-conveniences in this episode. As a result, I must commend the writers for creating this genuine plot in this episode.
    Scenes: In this section I will review specific scenes. I may also skip one or more scenes. Firstly, there is the opening, with Maud performing her “stand-up comedy” that I was really looking forward to after she announced it in the season 7 episode “Rock Solid Friendship”. That isn’t the only amazing aspect of this opening, because the developers also added the “Hayburger” restaurant building into this scene, which was first introduced in the season 4 episode “Twilight Time” (there are a few differences, but it is the same building). Now this is where the new MLP opening song is first revealed. It really needed alteration, since the school and numerous new characters were added, so this change is appreciated since it included the new features of season 8 while still maintaining a few of the old opening features and general flow. The entire opening sequence of this episode is well done. Now I will proceed far into the latter half of the episode toward the scene where we have Starlight and Maud flying kites. Starlight’s kite flying hobby is fantastic and serves to add to her being a great character, so its return makes this episode even more enjoyable. Also, before I proceed to the next subject, one should note that Starlight has kites hanging from the ceiling in her room during this episode. Next, I will discuss the Pie rock farm scene. The writers include Pinkie’s other sisters, Marble and Limestone Pie. It’s very nice to have them back into the picture after a very long time since their last appearance on the show. They are well written, so nice job on this part. They also played a significant role by enlightening Pinkie on what is known as the moral of this episode. That is basically all the scenes I wanted to review, since the remainder has nothing notable that I need to focus on that I haven’t already addressed in this review.
    Moral: This episode’s moral is well informative and illustrated though the given metaphor. It is amazing how looks can be so deceptive, that’s why I always loved the geode metaphor, a long time before this episode even aired. I own a miniature geode that is within my bedroom up to this day to remind me of how one should not look on the outward appearance and judge someone by that method; rather one should look at the inward gems of another human, the positive side that has so much potential. That is a very considerable lesson to learn, and an even harder one to apply with humans being so judgmental of others.
    Episode Rating: 7/10
    Conclusion: This episode is highly enjoyable in all aspects except the characters. With Pinkie's overexaggerated personality and Mudbriar's technicality, it came become annoying, leaving this episode with a "great" rating.
    Rating Scale:
    0 = the worst of the worst, an absolute failure
    1 = an extremely horrible disaster
    2 = very dreadful
    3 = terrible
    4 = bad
    5 = mediocre
    6 = good
    7 = great
    8 = very fantastic
    9 = extremely amazing
    10 = an absolute perfection
  20. EpicEnergy
    Season 8 Episode 4 “Fake It Till’ You Make It” Review by EpicEnergy
    Characters: This episode centers around Fluttershy, so I will focus solely on this character for this reason and that there are no new characters introduced. Fluttershy acts far out of character in this episode, so the question that should be asked should be based around whether this is inconsistent and whether it makes sense or not. I would argue that it is very inconsistent and makes no sense. It will be evident why I say this in the “scenes” section.
    Plot: Fluttershy maintains the Manehattan boutique for Rarity and decides to act as the Saddle Row pony’s stereotypical personality to be effective. At first this works. As time progresses though, Fluttershy becomes a more and more unpleasant Saddle Row pony who eventually takes this acting to an extreme that is displeasing even for a Saddle Row pony, which renders her acting ineffective. Now for a short review on this plot. I must complement the writers because they have carefully designed the incidents so that nothing appears to be solely a plot-convenience or an arbitrary plot-device. I must also add that this main plot is laid out nicely, from beginning to end.
    Scenes: I will review a few individual scenes in this section. The opening scene is great, because it occurs in Fluttershy’s animal sanctuary which is nice to have its appearance once again after its initial development in season 7. This opening also serves to further the plot, providing an explanation of the events that will ensue later in the episode. The next scene I will review occurs a while after this which has something that is plainly absurd. It’s when one of the customers tastes the lukewarm tea and instantly spits it out, and Fluttershy proceeds to lecture the raccoons very harshly afterwards. I’ll refer to this incident from now on as the “lukewarm-tea encounter”. It is at this point, I argue, where Fluttershy losses her character and unnecessarily acts excessively unpleasant. It also at this point that Fluttershy does the completely illogical, which should not have occurred. She does not apologize to the critters, and proceeds to make offensive remarks to the customers while elevating the boutique dresses to a god-like level that no one could buy because they are not worthy. There is a presented reason why Flutters does this, which is also illogical, but I’ll get to that afterwards. For now, I must address another scene before I get to the last part. In this scene, Fluttershy ignores her friends, despite them attempting to help, and kicks them out of Rarity’s shop! I know Fluttershy was acting, but acting does not mean one loses all sense of reason and not know when to stop and take things seriously! The final scene I will review is when Fluttershy admits she became too distracted with her acting, but it fails to suffice as a plausible explanation for her behavior, seeming to be more of an excuse than anything. She says, “I’m sorry, you know I was only pretending right?”. This is a terrible explanation because getting too distracted by acting and pretending to be an overexaggerated and illogical stereotypical Saddle Row pony does not justify being a detrimental employee and horrible friend. In other words, pretending to be someone offensive doesn’t justify being offensive, since harm is inflicted either way if the offended doesn’t know you’re pretending, which is exactly what happened. Also, everyone just forgives Fluttershy after her illogical explanation anyways without even speaking of how wrong her actions were. It’s implying that Fluttershy shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions at all because she was too focused on pretending to be someone she was not!!! I’ll have to subtract many points from the episode rating for this erroneous explanation, response, and implication.
    Moral: I will now focus on the main moral. In case no one knows what that moral is, it simply is that one has inner strength and need not change himself/herself in order to show it. This moral is highly fantastic, because it is very true and very helpful.
    Additional Areas (if applicable):
    Inconsistency with the Season 1 episode “Suited for Success”: In “Suited for Success”, Fluttershy is said, by her friends, to have a freaky knowledge of sowing, which helped her create Rarity’s dress exactly as intended. This knowledge is clearly obvious when Fluttershy gives her real opinion on the dress Rarity made for her a few moments back in this season 1 episode. The inconsistency is that Fluttershy is depicted as having hardly any knowledge of fashion in season 8 episode 4, which even Fluttershy herself admits.
    Episode Rating: 3/10
    Conclusion: Everything about Fluttershy makes sense up to the “lukewarm-tea encounter”, and then everything goes downhill from there. The main moral is exceedingly great, as well as the general plot, but Fluttershy’s behavior is illogical along with a terrible explanation for it. In addition to those problems, this episode also contradicts the season 1 episode resulting in an irritating inconsistency. To conclude, I must give this episode a negative rating. As brutal as a 3/10 may appear, if you line it up with my rating scale you will find it is not nearly as brutal as it could be.
    Rating Scale:
    0 = the worst of the worst, an absolute failure
    1 = an extremely horrible disaster
    2 = very dreadful
    3 = terrible
    4 = bad
    5 = mediocre
    6 = good
    7 = great
    8 = very fantastic
    9 = extremely amazing
    10 = an absolute perfection
  21. EpicEnergy
    Season 8 Episode 5 "Grannies Gone Wild" Review by EpicEnergy
    This episode is impressive. The worldbuilding in it is very appreciative, as Las Pegasus is the setting of this episode, this time without having any antagonist. As if the worldbuilding wasn’t enough, the numerous side characters (old and new) are given satisfying spotlight time that allows them to develop. This also opens the door for plenty of fan-fics and so much potential for the show. I’d also like to add that Jackpot and Trixie appear to be alike, which generates the theory that Jackpot is Trixie’s dad. I would love to see that area explored in later episodes. Proceeding, Rainbow Dash is the only character who presents a complication in this episode, because she acts out-of-character. Acting out-of-character is sometimes inconsistent and illogical, like in the previous episode of season 8 (“Fake It Till’ You Make It”). I would argue that in this episode it is not inconsistent or illogical because Rainbow Dash’s behavior is understandable as she is forced to obey Applejack’s list or face the consequences. That doesn’t make it any less bothersome though. Moving onward, the moral is remarkable. It has been constantly stressed throughout the episode, not in a forceful manner, and is very relatable for many of us. The moral is that old people aren’t as boring and stupid as they are normally said to be. This moral reminds us to respect our elders and not assume unnecessary things about them simply because of their age. Before I close, I wanted to mention that throughout this episode Rainbow Dash uses her wings as hands. As minor as this may sound, it is very creative, and I find it rather neat to have in the show.
    Episode Rating: 9/10
    Overall, this episode is one of my most enjoyed episodes in season 8, except for Rainbow Dash following AJ’s list, which is very understandable in the given context but still can be somewhat irritating in a few scenes.
    Rating Scale:
     
  22. EpicEnergy
    Season 8 Episode 6 “Surf and/or Turf” Review by EpicEnergy
    This episode was amazing, but it did contain a few problems. First and foremost, I must address one of the largest problems in season 8 – the Cutie Map. I briefly mentioned it in my episode 1 review, that it will affect future episodes, and that is exactly what is occurring here in episode 6. I’ll briefly explain the situation – The Cutie Map is already a contrived and arbitrary plot-device, because it suddenly appeared with Twilight’s Castle at the end of season 4 and was largely used after that to mysteriously tell the mane six where friendship problems are and where travel to solve them without any explanation at all. It’s being used to further the plot of many episodes before and many to come yet continues to be arbitrary; thus, it remains to be problematic until an explanation is provided. This arbitrary plot-device mysteriously calls the CMCs in this episode and tells them exactly where to go and gives us no explanation as to why it called the CMCs and how it knew where a friendship problem was. Consequently, this incident affects this episode’s rating. Next topic. The characters and worldbuilding are overwhelmingly superb! There are numerous new characters all over the place. The episode’s story takes place at the majestic Mount Aris, which was first introduced in the MLP Movie. This kingdom is magnificent and has a culture of its own, with new buildings, events, creatures, hobbies, wildlife, and more! The most important aspect is that this kingdom has two separate places to live in: the land (with Harmonizing Heights) and the sea (aka., Seaquestria). I am genuinely astonished at both the characters and the worldbuilding in this episode! Proceeding to the next subject. The moral of this episode has a normal meaning and an allegorical meaning. The normal meaning is that one doesn’t necessarily have to choose between two things, and that your family will accept you for who you are even if you don’t choose. The allegorical meaning focuses on a specific topic, which is the modern-day issue of divorce. After a divorce occurs, the child can sometimes feel like he has no choice but to choose between one parent or the other. The episode is saying that the child doesn’t have to choose, and that he could switch between parents as much as he likes. This is very good advice, but one must take into consideration that it is only applicable to certain contexts.
    Minor Inconsistencies with other episodes: Before I proceed to the episode rating, I must address a few inconsistencies this episode has with previous episodes. Firstly, in the MLP Movie Twilight is looked down upon by the seaponies/hippogriffs after she intently steals their pearl, yet she walks around Mount Aris without anyone bringing it up whatsoever. How is she suddenly forgiven by the Queen Novo and the hippogriffs for this? I find this to be an irritating inconsistency. Another inconsistency is evident far back, when Twilight says she can’t go to Griffinstone because the map didn’t call her (in the S5 episode “The Lost Treasure of Griffinstone”); however, she easily goes to Mount Aris despite not being called by the map. Why couldn’t she go to Griffinstone for the sake of research, yet she could easily go to Mount Aris for this reason? Like I said, another inconsistency.
    Episode Rating: 8/10
    To conclude, this episode has positive features and negative features, with the positive outweighing the negative by a good amount. It succeeds by far in the worldbuilding, characters, and moral aspects. On the contrary, it had a severely contrived and arbitrary plot-device that is only made worse through this episode. This episode also has a few minor inconsistencies with previous episodes.
    Rating Scale:
     
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